debate notes - Dion is angry, etc.

Dion demonstrated today two tendencies that have quietly underrode his candidacy from the beginning.

Firstly, amongst the top 4, he is the business candidate. This is something he's made no secret about; ask him what is the most important aspect of his campaign and he will always indicate the economy. Any suggestion of new money from any of the other candidates always rises his ire. I think some people support him for precisely this reason, but I also think this tendency has simply been missed by many.

Secondly, he is a sallow apologist for the most recent Liberal governments. His Environmental exchange was a small, petty, angry defence of his mediocre record. This is inexcusable. I've made the point before - now is for renewal, not deference to past 'accomplishments'. If our message next election is that we need no new measures for the environment, that we did everything right, and that we have only Canadians to blame because they cut our tenure short - then we will get laughed off the ballot.

In fact, let's leave politics alone. If we can't do better than we did controlling emissions, then life on this earth is doomed. Ignatieff-esque oratory melodrama? Perhaps, but true nonetheless.

His exchange was just extraordinarily thoughtless. His critique of Ignatieff's sustainability framework, against which all legislation will be measured, was that we don't need an act, we just need leadership. He presents this approacch simulatenously with why this approach doesn't work. If everything hinges on leadership, then Stephen Harper can come along and scupper all of Dion's hard work - as Dion so often indicates. Were an act in place, any leader could be brought to account. None could choose to ignore a fundamental commitment to sustainability. I just wish Ignatieff had pointed out this weak-as-water reason.

And has his English gotten worse? It never used to bother me.

The only positive was his closing statement, during which he delivered a few sweet spanks.

On the record - Kennedy is my clear second choice. I still don't like the "enterprise/new liberalism" meaninglessness, but he looked smart, comfortable, and self-assured. I wish I could've listened to his French, instead of a CPAC translater who sounded like he was dying.

Bob Rae reminded us that he helped bring down Joe Clark and usher in the all-imporant 1980 Trudeau government. He failed to mention the relationship he had with Trudeau: the cynicism, the philosophical opposition, the political problem-causing, the mutual detestation. I know he was largely joking, but the truth is he has quietly assumed some Trudeauvian credit for political expediency and it makes me see red.

"We one four straight." - Dryden. Very sweet.

Ignatieff has an ability to connect any question at all with Canada's greatness and our patriotic duty to build civic sharing, to breath the free air, and to achieve our potential as human stewards of the planet Earth.